The Hundredth Monkey Story:

A Legend and A Hypothesis

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, has been
observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years. In 1952,
on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys
with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked
the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt
unpleasant.

An 18-month-old-female named Imo found she could solve
the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She
taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned
this new way and they taught their mothers, too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by
various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between
1952 and 1958, all the young monkeys learned to wash the
sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the
adults who imitated their children learned this social
improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet
potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of
1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet
potatoes- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that
when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on
Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.
Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth
monkey learned to wash potatoes.

Then it happened!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was
washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy
of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological
breakthrough!

But notice.

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists
was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped
over the sea-

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland
troops of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet
potatoes!

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an
awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind
to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, the Hundredth
Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of
people know of a new way, it may remain the consciousness
property of these people. But there is a point at which if
only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is
strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost
everyone!